Bennie Newton

I would like to thank The Times for your excellent coverage of the story of the late Bennie Newton (May 2). If ever a man deserved to be honored, it was he.

Of course it was his heroic and dramatic rescue of Fidel Lopez that brought him into the public eye, but his life was one of the great success stories.

I knew Bennie Newton personally. We attended the same church for a while. I was also privileged to be involved with the prison ministry that he organized. Whenever I was in his presence I could not help but feel his overwhelming sense of humility and compassion. Kindness was his hallmark. Yet in spite of this, as attested to by his actions during the riots, he was also a bold and courageous man, ready to lay down his life for his fellow man, who happened to be a stranger.

In recent times the media, in general, have dramatized far too many negative examples from religious circles, while ignoring the Bennie Newtons.

There are many other Bennie Newtons whose tragic beginnings have been reversed and lives transformed by spiritual conversion. They are now serving God and their fellow man.

We would like to hear more about them.

ROBERT L. BRAY

Los Angeles